“I always put my heart ahead of my brain. I never let my brain do the thinking,” explains Salvatore Marrano, vocalist for progressive rock band Thank You Scientist. “Which means I won’t be comfortable with my life but I’ll be happy in my soul. Fulfilled.”
Marrano lives a life focused around singing. It’s been this way as long as he can remember, recalling one of his earliest childhood memories as standing on the kitchen table and serenading house guests with Lionel Richie songs. It wasn’t until his teen years that he discovered the magic of creating music with others, singing melodies while his friend strummed guitar, transforming his passion into obsession. Coupled with his newfound love of making music was his discovery of Tool’s album Ænima , igniting a burning desire that made him admittedly difficult to work with.
“I was completely out of my mind after that record. I said, ‘This is what I want.’ People hated me early on. The bands I was in were like, ‘Dude I can’t play with you,’ and I’m like, ‘You can’t play 7 days a week? What’s wrong with you?’”
After a decade of toiling around with various bands, he found himself solo in 2009. Marrano spent roughly seven months seeking a new band, doing everything from hanging out at Guitar Center to responding to ads on Craigslist. “Let’s say out of 20 ads I answered, one had music to listen to. You have no idea what you’re walking into when you audition for bands, and I auditioned for some real shitty ones.”
His hunt came to an end in October of 2009 when he came across the rare ad for a band seeking singer that actually contained sample music. Marrano was immediately hooked, the unique song structure and the inclusion of unconventional instruments like saxophone piquing his interest.
“I listened to it twice and e-mailed them, ‘I need to come in and audition, I have some great ideas.’ I didn’t, I just wanted to message them immediately, and about 10 minutes later the lyrics for Grin were complete.”
He explains that things were weird at first, with Marrano coming at the music with poppy approach while the others were more focused on complex music compositions. But something clicked, Marrano’s melodies blending well with the instrumentals, creating a sound they all enjoyed and leaving Sal to feel like he was cheating the system.
“All those guys went to school for music, they’re well trained whether its jazz or classical…to be able to find a band like that through a Craigslist ad? Almost impossible.” The band eventually settled on a full arrangement of seven members, consisting of guitar, bass, drums, violin, saxophone, trumpet, and a vocalist.
Thank You Scientist received a big push in popularity in 2014 after signing with Evil Ink Records, the record label belonging to Claudio Sanchez, front man for the band Coheed & Cambria. In addition to the signing, Thank You Scientist went on tour with Coheed & Cambria that year, a move that Marrano attributes to a large portion of their fanbase today. What became the band’s first major push was almost dismissed as a joke.
“It was April Fool’s Day. We had a show at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, and the promoter called us and said ‘hey, do you guys know Claudio Sanchez?’ and we’re like ‘Yeah, we know him.’ She says that he just called and asked to be put on the guest list. We thought it’s probably a joke but to put him on the guest list and if he shows up, great. About a half hour before we played I’m doing my warm ups in the back and I look out and see “the hair,” I’m like ‘Oh fuck, its Claudio’. He came with a friend that turned him on to us, he really dug us, and the rest is kind of history.”
Marrano wasn’t a stranger to large sized crowds since his former band was a regular opener for national acts at the Starland Ballroom in New Jersey, so he believed he was ready for the tour. He didn’t account for the type of intense crowd energy found at Coheed shows, and quickly realized what a different experience this would be.
“After the first show I wasn’t caring about my voice, I didn’t care about my chops. I kind of collapsed backstage because the way that the crowd responded to us, that’s like nothing I had felt. I was prepared for that many people, but the fact that there was so much energy…by the time I walked off stage I put my back against the wall, slid down, and was like holding my head in my hands because I was completely emotionally drained. I thought, “That was un-fucking-believable, and we have to do it for four more weeks.”
Thank You Scientist continued touring across North America with bands like Haken, Periphery, and Devin Townsend, as well as finishing their first European tour in Fall of 2017 with Bumblefoot of Guns N’ Roses fame. The band went through its biggest line-up change right before the European tour, replacing their drummer, saxophonist, and trumpeter. Such major changes could have derailed the band’s momentum, but Sal’s been taken back by the new players’ talent and believes the band is stronger than ever.
“The transition with the new guys blew me away. We started playing late August with all three of them and by November they learned an hour and a half of material. Complicated material…all memorized. By the third rehearsal I was like ‘how are you guys even doing this?’ but then I realized I’m playing with mad men.”
With these roster changes making Sal a veteran member of the band, second only to band creator and guitarist Tom Monda, the final question seemed obvious: who did he think would outlast the other in a zombie apocalypse? “I would have to say me just because of size, I’m gargantuan compared to Tom, but it wouldn’t come down to that because I’d throw him on my back and get him to higher ground and save him and live a happy life together. But when I got hungry, if we ran out of food, I would absolutely eat the fucking shit out of him.”
-Chris Sicoli
